The Magic Kingdom, together with the mightiest and most sprawling nation on the continent — the Empire — was plotting something.
This piece of news.
Isagi and the girls had actually heard about it long ago, from Alfia's own mouth.
Come to think of it, Isagi had no idea where this so-called "Empire" even was, or just how "powerful" it really was.
He only vaguely remembered—
Back during the Goddess Festival, he'd seen officials from that nation, along with their escorting guards.
Their neat, proper attire had stood in stark contrast to the habitually sloppy adventurers of Orario nearby.
And then, this very summer—
Astrea Familia was putting together a small task force to head to the Magic Kingdom and carry out a "commission."
The numbers involved weren't large.
Himself, Ryuu, Ais, and Alfia — and besides them, Miss Asfi and Goddess Artemis. One of them knew the local terrain well enough to serve as a guide, while the young goddess would act as the city's official representative, negotiating with Odin, the god who ruled the Magic Kingdom, whenever the need arose.
Come to think of it—
The Magic Kingdom was ruled by the great god Odin. But what about the "Empire"?
That, he honestly had no idea.
Because that nation was simply too shrouded in mystery.
It sat at the far end of the continent, an immense distance from Orario, and in an age without any kind of network, with only bards, merchants, and adventurers to carry word along, there was naturally no way to get any solid information about it.
Come to think of it—
Miss Lunoire actually came from the Empire.
By her own account, her parents had been minor nobles of the Empire, killed in some war, their lands seized — leaving her an orphan.
So she'd taken up a wandering life, eventually joining a goddess's Familia and becoming an adventurer.
Only, that goddess had later been sent back to the heavens over a conflict with another Familia, so Lunoire had turned to bounty hunting, attaching herself to one Familia after another and doing work not unlike a mercenary's.
According to her—
the Empire had no adventurers of any particular power, but it did have a considerable number of second-tier adventurers at Lv. 3 to Lv. 4.
In fact, a large share of the Monsters that Orario smuggled out each year were filling "orders" placed by the Empire.
Unlike the warrior country where Tiona and her people had been born—
the Empire forged its Warriors through endless death-matches pitting Monsters against adventurers.
But—
Lunoire had been gone from that place for years now, and had no idea what the nation had become since.
Not that it mattered much.
Either way, their destination this time wasn't the Empire at all, but Altena, the Magic Kingdom —
—
Riding in a carriage—
They could have ridden Wyverns there instead, or, more directly still, he and Ais could simply have flown everyone over themselves.
But since there was no rush—
the journey had turned into an actual, proper "journey."
Isagi didn't mind taking it slow — they could even find places to rest along the way.
For instance—
the carriage rattled along and, under a night sky bright with stars and moon, came to a stop before a hot-spring inn tucked away in the mountain forest.
Riveria had recommended the place.
On hearing they'd be taking a carriage all the way to the Magic Kingdom, she'd gone out of her way to mark this rest stop on the map for them.
As a mage—
Riveria naturally made trips out there herself now and then, whether to buy magic treasure stone or to pick up little things only a mage would need.
The inn's owner was, of course, an Elf.
On learning that the group knew the princess, the owner had grown extremely warm and gone out of his way to arrange quite luxurious rooms and dinner for everyone.
Although...
both Isagi and Ais found Elf cuisine a bit hard to get used to.
Too bland.
It made Ais wish, just for a moment, that Tiona were there — they could've gone up into the mountains to catch a rabbit or a pheasant to round out the meal.
But tonight, that clearly wasn't in the cards.
Night had only just fallen.
After dinner, Isagi had just finished setting down his luggage in his room — mostly just a change of everyday clothes—
when he heard a knock at the door.
He opened it, and sure enough, there was Ais and the others.
The girl, in a rush, called for him to come to the inn's back courtyard.
This was likely one of those fairly private, high-end sorts of establishments — Riveria hadn't said so outright, but Isagi could tell.
There were hardly any other guests at the inn, and nearly all of them seemed to be staying in separate, old-fashioned traditional courtyards, each complete with its own hot spring and a fairly sizable garden.
Tall trees grew thick and shadowed within, unnamed flowers blooming among them — altogether a tranquil, vivid scene.
Resting in a place like this made one's whole mood settle into an unshakable calm.
Hm—
The princess certainly knew how to enjoy herself.
Too bad Ais seemed completely oblivious to any of that. The golden-haired girl dragged him straight to what looked like a sitting room or dining area within the courtyard.
By then, everyone else was already seated around a wide round table, drinking tea and chatting, apparently waiting for him to show up.
Isagi knew exactly what Ais was after.
This girl just wanted to drag him and Alfia into her dream to "fight" again!
It had practically become routine practice by now.
Ryuu-senpai wasn't Lv. 8 yet, but she could still join in for the time being — no one actually died in the dream anyway, so there was no harm in getting a taste of it.
That much wasn't a problem.
After all, this had been the plan from the moment they set out — time was tight, and once next year ended, the [Black Dragon] would come bursting free.
They couldn't afford to be too leisurely about it.
But—
watching Ais's eager enthusiasm, Isagi couldn't shake the feeling something was a little off.
Hm... this girl wasn't scheming something else in that head of hers, was she?
The night deepened.
When Isagi groggily woke up, all he felt was gut-wrenching hunger.
Probably because that evening's "rabbit food" hadn't filled him up.
To be fair—
Elf cuisine, traditionally speaking, wasn't exactly bad, but it was all fruits and vegetables and the like, leaving you with a sense of never actually being full.
It wasn't a matter of quantity — food like that just didn't stick to your ribs.
A person really needed meat!
Ais and the others looked a little worn out too. Fighting inside the dream didn't leave any injuries, but it drained a tremendous amount of mental strength.
Right now, all Isagi wanted was to eat his fill, take a nice soak in the courtyard's hot spring, and go to sleep.
Luckily, Asfi and Artemis, who hadn't entered Ais's dream, understood exactly what was needed and had already prepared a midnight snack for him and the girls.
And it really had been caught out in the wild, too.
According to Asfi, there was a river not far outside the inn, and she'd just taken Goddess Artemis out there to catch some fish.
Of course, in truth neither of them had actually lifted a finger — the fishing had been done by an alchemical puppet the woman had conjured up using Mystery.
Hm...
Didn't matter what had caught it, so long as it was edible.
But while grilling the fish in the courtyard, Isagi finally noticed something off — wait, how had Aphrodite tagged along again?!
____
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